Falling debris from an overhead bridge forced a bottleneck on the Inner Belt's northern end yesterday morning, slowing rush-hour motorists to the speed of rocks.

State transportation officials shut down two lanes of the eastbound Inner Belt, between the Lakeside Ave. exit ramp and Dead Man's Curve, at about 8:45 a.m. yesterday. Motorists had to squeeze into one lane of traffic.

The culprit: Loose concrete from the S. Marginal Rd. bridge, caused by heavy traffic. Ignatius Hozjan, an Ohio Department of Transportation employee, was driving on the Inner Belt at about 8: 30 a.m. when he noticed debris falling from the bridge onto the two left lanes.

An ODOT crew spent the morning using hammers and chisels to chip away the loose concrete from the bridge's underbelly, while co-workers swept away the debris. The work did not weaken the bridge structure, ODOT officials said. An inspector later inspected the bridge and declared it safe.

The lanes were reopened by 1:30 p.m. ODOT yesterday received no reports of debris hitting cars.

"This particular bridge has never been a problem before," said Joe Riedl, an ODOT transportation manager.

Motorists stuck in the traffic jam yesterday morning craned their necks from windows to try to see what was causing the tie-up.

"What's the matter with this thing?" shouted Ted Baginski, from Parma, who had been crawling along the Inner Belt for an hour. "You better believe I'm irritated."

Abe Allan, of Cleveland, tried to be patient as he sat in his car, shrugging his shoulders when asked about the traffic mess. He was trying to get to work at an Eddy Rd. grocery store.

"I'm late," he said about 10:30 a.m. "Usually by 9:30, I'm in the store."

Riedl said he regretted the rush-hour traffic problems but added, "It's better to have a traffic tie-up than somebody getting hurt."

Loose concrete on bridges is a common occurrence, according to ODOT. It typically occurs when a bridge's steel frame rusts. The rusting causes the steel to expand, weakening the surrounding concrete. Vibrations caused by heavy traffic then further loosens the concrete.

The S. Marginal Rd. bridge, built in 1959, was last inspected on Aug. 13, 2000, according to ODOT spokeswoman Billie Baughman. It was scheduled for another inspection this summer.